Narrow lanes and scary noises

[KimSteve]

currently about to finish our tour of Devon and Cornwall. It's our first trip and the sounds of the twigs etc 'smashing' the side of the van was horrendous, however there is obviously a huge difference between the sound and damage which actually is none existent. We did have a couple of 'sillys', a man in a mini Peugeot deliberately drove past a passing place expecting me to reverse up hill over the top of the vehicle behind me. The drivers wife was giving him such an ear bashing. The second was so much more satisfying. Narrow road out of Padstow to the 39 and bright shiny SUV speeding towards us, much too quickly, already in the hedge with no where else to go and saying slow down, slow down, he did not hear me, his wing mirror caught ours, sound was horrible, but our mirror remained in one piece, the joy I felt seeing bits of disintegrating white plastic mirror spreading all over the road was priceless, they did not stop. Can't help thinking the explanation on the insurance claim might differ to reality

 

[Stag man]

The ‘arrogant driver’ thing happens to me every so often getting out of our estate round all of the parked cars
I've been driven at clearly on the expectation that I would reverse
But then, there’s tea and coffee on board, possibly something to eat, beds and most importantly- a loo
Happy days….

 

[Nigel L]

Usually taking the keys out of the ignition and dangling them in the windscreen, sends the message that you have no intention of reversing

 

[PP Bear]

Same

currently about to finish our tour of Devon and Cornwall. It's our first trip and the sounds of the twigs etc 'smashing' the side of the van was horrendous, however there is obviously a huge difference between the sound and damage which actually is none existent. We did have a couple of 'sillys', a man in a mini Peugeot deliberately drove past a passing place expecting me to reverse up hill over the top of the vehicle behind me. The drivers wife was giving him such an ear bashing. The second was so much more satisfying. Narrow road out of Padstow to the 39 and bright shiny SUV speeding towards us, much too quickly, already in the hedge with no where else to go and saying slow down, slow down, he did not hear me, his wing mirror caught ours, sound was horrible, but our mirror remained in one piece, the joy I felt seeing bits of disintegrating white plastic mirror spreading all over the road was priceless, they did not stop. Can't help thinking the explanation on the insurance claim might differ to reality

Same thing happened to me, with a LR Discovery. Lady driving far too fast down a narrow road and coming round a bend she struck my mirror. I have mirror guards fitted and good job, as the force of the impact popped the drivers lower mirror off it’s mount and hung there on the heater wiring.

There was nowhere to stop and I watched her drive off. A little bit further down the road I pulled into a gate opening to a farmers field and low and behold the lady pulled up behind me. I never got out but put my window down. A young mum then stood at my window getting very distressed about how she was running late to pick up her kids up from school and it’s a good job they hadn’t been in the car when the accident happened. She went on to say she’d had a terribly stressful day volunteering in the village and that’s why she was late for school closing and started to cry and literally changed her voice and body language.

She then asked for my Insurance details as I had caused the accident (her words). When I told her it doesn’t work like that, I need her details too and did she also have a dashcam like I have so we can review the details. At that she got really irate and started screaming and yelling at me that I was trying to cheat her and trick her and she went and stood in front of the bonnet.

At that I became worried and concerned. Me on my own, emotional woman on her own, so I informed her that I was taking her car details and she should do the same and that I was leaving and will pass on all the details to the police.

At this she became even more irate and ran into the road whaling and screaming. I drove off and found a layby to park up and reported the entire episode to the police, including veh reg etc.

Also phoned insurance just to let them know what had happened.

Police called a few days later and said that they had spoken to the lady, who had said I tried to run her over They asked if I wanted to press charges and of course not. If anything it’s a knock for knock and I hadn’t suffered any damage and nor had she looking at her vehicle.

Not heard anything since, but thank goodness for dashcams and quite a horrible experience.

The mirror easily popped back into place and no damage at all. I took pictures of the mirror and mirror guard and shot a couple of videos to prove there was no damage to the vehicle.

 

[landscaper]

We live in Devon and are accustomed to the narrow lanes and high hedges. It never fails to amaze us how people just cannot reverse. What is so troubling as it isnt mainly the older generation (of which we are) but young people. Think that reversing skills should have more emphasis in the driving test. We have a daily commute through very narrow lanes to where we take our dogs for their walk and quite honestly it is just easier to reverse than argue about who is going to or wait for others to try to! We dont take many holidays in either Devon or Cornwall in our motorhome, and when we do we tend to take a car with us.

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[movan]

Same

Same thing happened to me, with a LR Discovery. Lady driving far too fast down a narrow road and coming round a bend she struck my mirror. I have mirror guards fitted and good job, as the force of the impact popped the drivers lower mirror off it’s mount and hung there on the heater wiring.

There was nowhere to stop and I watched her drive off. A little bit further down the road I pulled into a gate opening to a farmers field and low and behold the lady pulled up behind me. I never got out but put my window down. A young mum then stood at my window getting very distressed about how she was running late to pick up her kids up from school and it’s a good job they hadn’t been in the car when the accident happened. She went on to say she’d had a terribly stressful day volunteering in the village and that’s why she was late for school closing and started to cry and literally changed her voice and body language.

She then asked for my Insurance details as I had caused the accident (her words). When I told her it doesn’t work like that, I need her details too and did she also have a dashcam like I have so we can review the details. At that she got really irate and started screaming and yelling at me that I was trying to cheat her and trick her and she went and stood in front of the bonnet.

At that I became worried and concerned. Me on my own, emotional woman on her own, so I informed her that I was taking her car details and she should do the same and that I was leaving and will pass on all the details to the police.

At this she became even more irate and ran into the road whaling and screaming. I drove off and found a layby to park up and reported the entire episode to the police, including veh reg etc.

Also phoned insurance just to let them know what had happened.

Police called a few days later and said that they had spoken to the lady, who had said I tried to run her over They asked if I wanted to press charges and of course not. If anything it’s a knock for knock and I hadn’t suffered any damage and nor had she looking at her vehicle.

Not heard anything since, but thank goodness for dashcams and quite a horrible experience.

The mirror easily popped back into place and no damage at all. I took pictures of the mirror and mirror guard and shot a couple of videos to prove there was no damage to the vehicle.
View attachment 518259

I am so sorry. I feel terrible. I started to laugh halfway through that. What a plonker she is.... but sadly too many of them about. X

 

[tonyidle]

We live in Devon and are accustomed to the narrow lanes and high hedges. It never fails to amaze us how people just cannot reverse. What is so troubling as it isnt mainly the older generation (of which we are) but young people. Think that reversing skills should have more emphasis in the driving test. We have a daily commute through very narrow lanes to where we take our dogs for their walk and quite honestly it is just easier to reverse than argue about who is going to or wait for others to try to! We dont take many holidays in either Devon or Cornwall in our motorhome, and when we do we tend to take a car with us.

What worries me more are those who cannot judge the width of their vehicles - or are they taught not to bother? A street near me that I use regularly is at least three cars wide (or even two + a white van). It has marked parallel parking on one side leaving enough room for two cars to pass alongside. Most never attempt it. They wait at one end of the parked area (so close it takes an exaggerated manoeuvre to pull out) until the road is clear then drive up the centre of the now freed carriageway. That doesn't bother me if I'm the approaching vehicle but it really, really, does if I'm behind them. If a car is already alongside the parked cars I simply continue so I can enjoy the abject terror on the face of the approaching driver as he / she attempts to steer through a 7 foot gap.

 

[Gaston aires]

True story. Last time we did the Italian lakes, an Italian driver sped round the corner far too fast and caught our wing mirror, this was on a Hymer star line and it was made of metal. No damage to our vehicle as it turned out whatsoever but he was trailing bits off his uno. I stopped and this fat Italian guy was shouting and up for a fight. Trouble was he had not applied his handbrake properly and I had the immense pleasure of watching him chase after his car until it went into a ditch. Karma or what.
I just carried on feeling smug and happy.
Phil

 

[FIDGET]

A few years ago , we were in a forest in Wales coming down a quite steep hill on a reasonably narrow road , met a lady driver coming up the hill , I stopped & waited until she eventually tried to reverse back down the hill ( she was unable to reverse in a straight line ) proceeding to do what I call or can only describe as drawing a xmas tree on the road with her movements , down to the left back up to the middle down to the right back up to the middle only moving about 10 yards in each process , eventually she put it in reasonably close to one side and I passed , thanking her as we went by , it took her nearly 10 mins to reverse about 120 yrds.

 

[POH]

Just had a month away doing Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, Isle of Wight , and I have to say I have never seen such bad driving more so in Devon, Cornwall , from young and old drivers IE not giving way, coming straight at you down narrow roads ,was glad to get back to urbanisation.

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[busby]

currently about to finish our tour of Devon and Cornwall. It's our first trip and the sounds of the twigs etc 'smashing' the side of the van was horrendous, however there is obviously a huge difference between the sound and damage which actually is none existent. We did have a couple of 'sillys', a man in a mini Peugeot deliberately drove past a passing place expecting me to reverse up hill over the top of the vehicle behind me. The drivers wife was giving him such an ear bashing. The second was so much more satisfying. Narrow road out of Padstow to the 39 and bright shiny SUV speeding towards us, much too quickly, already in the hedge with no where else to go and saying slow down, slow down, he did not hear me, his wing mirror caught ours, sound was horrible, but our mirror remained in one piece, the joy I felt seeing bits of disintegrating white plastic mirror spreading all over the road was priceless, they did not stop. Can't help thinking the explanation on the insurance claim might differ to reality

When it's narrow and they are approaching fast don't pull in .Stay in the middle until they slow right down.BUSBY.

 

[Wikky]

We always have a dashcam in our vehicles. I even have one on the motorbike. There are too many plonkers around who are a mix of arrogance and driver incompetence.
My dashcam has saved me twice now in my car as other drivers have run in to me. Resulted in 2 no fault claims. One of the drivers claimed it was my fault. I sent the video footage to my insurer and the claim was 1 week before going to court then the other pary's insurer paid up for the repairs to my car.
Dashcams are defo value for money.

 

[Sandancers]

We always have a dashcam in our vehicles. I even have one on the motorbike. There are too many plonkers around who are a mix of arrogance and driver incompetence.
My dashcam has saved me twice now in my car as other drivers have run in to me. Resulted in 2 no fault claims. One of the drivers claimed it was my fault. I sent the video footage to my insurer and the claim was 1 week before going to court then the other pary's insurer paid up for the repairs to my car.
Dashcams are defo value for money.

And for added re-assurance have your rear view cameras recording as well.

 

[Lenny HB]

What bugs me are the ones that pull out of a side turning and head towards you in a narrow or restricted road and expect you to reverse. No way they could not have see you when pulling out. French women appear to be experts at it, then you have a standoff for 20min while they try to remember how to reverse, in the meantime you have a queue of cars behind you.
The French never appear to be able to reverse.

 

[DaveFromBarrow]

When it's narrow and they are approaching fast don't pull in .Stay in the middle until they slow right down.BUSBY.

When I did my LGV class C one of the messages that stuck with me was "show your vehicle and intent". The basic premise was if you take a commanding position in the road it forces others to recognise the size of your vehicle and the fact there isn't room for both of you. I realise this isn't always possible as like many others in this thread I'm just back from three weeks touring around Cornwall and on narrow lanes there is only one position to take. However, on roads where it's possible for a car driver to think there might be room for both of you while you know there isn't, the method of driving explained above works very effectively. Problems arise if we drive in a way that suggests there might be room for us both to squeeze past each other.

d

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[Langtoftlad]

The French never appear to be able to reverse.

...apart from in times of war

 

[the1andonly]

"show your vehicle and intent". The basic premise was if you take a commanding position in the road it to paddforces others to recognise the size of your vehicle and the fact there isn't room for both of you.

Totaly agree.
I have problems with local sleepng policemen. Where there a 3 in a row i cant straddle one as too high and stuff underneath gets hit, so i go up 2 with gap in middle and still on my side of road, problem arises when car coming other way think i should move over when they want to pass a parked vehicle.
Edit occasionally have to use my feeble horn to let them know i exist

 

[Brains]

As an ex Cornish resident, I have lost count of the number of times over the years that I have had to get out of the vehicle I was driving (usually a big one, often with a trailer), and assist or instruct people on how to reverse. I've also reversed the car for them on a number of occasions.

That said it's not just the tourists, my aunt, who was still driving into her mid 90's, was well known for being unable to reverse, yet she lived in the middle of Cornwall in a village where the only roads in were typical single carriage way lanes.
The locals used to reverse her car for her if they were unable to reverse themselves.